Languages

[Zas678]

I'm a native English speaker and now speak Spanish fluently, thanks to living in Peru for 2 years. There's no better way to learn than by being completely surrounded by the language.

[Lightsworn Panda]

The Panda grew up speaking Chinese - both Mandarin and Cantonese - although they've taken a backseat to English, which has become his dominant language (probably because English at least has a reasonable and flexible alphabet compared to Chinese, and probably because The Panda lives in Australia). However, The Panda can still speak Mandarin (and of course English) fluently, although Cantonese seems to have drifted away from him.

 

The Panda has also learnt Japanese, Italian and French before, although it appears that the Panda can only handle 3 languages or dialects at a time.

 

The Panda has also strangely started speaking in the 3rd person.

[Kasimir]

Cantonese is hard :/ For some reason, at least I find it hard, probably because I was never taught it in any systematic sort of way. Never got past asking people what their name was and if they'd eaten. Funny enough, it was enough to let me pass that class

[Zea mays]

My native language is Hebrew, but after so many years in Nebraska, English is the language I think in.

 

I also know a smattering of Arabic and Spanish, and a bit of Japanese.

You should definitely get into written Arabic steel - calligraphically, it's just gorgeous. You feel like your notes are a work of art.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Zea mays

[Two McMillion]

English is my mother tongue; I learned Latin and Koine Greek growing up. I have a smattering of Spanish, Arabic, and Swahili, since I studied those for travel reasons but stopping paying attention after I got home.

[BreathTaker]

I'm planning on learning Gaelic (I'm half Scottish) not only because of heritage but because it seems like a very dramatic language. 

[Gabriele]

I'd like to learn Gaelic, too.

 

German native speaker fluent in English and Swedish. I can get along in Norwegian, Danish and French as well, and I have reading competence in Italian, Spanish, Icelandic, Dutch, Old Norse, AngloNorman, AngloSaxon, Ancient and Medieaval High German, and Latin.  A smattering of Russian, Latvian, and Ancient Greek.

[traceria]

I've always been rather envious of people who can speak more than one language, even if the others aren't fluently.  I just don't have the brain for it.  I'm fine with remembering rules (note: this is why being a math major worked well for me...it's a language of numbers/symbols/rules) but for the life of me cannot remember vocabulary.  So, suffice it to say English is all I can claim to speak.    

 

I have a friend who is getting her masters in Italian, though, and speaks fluently.  

[little wilson]

Native English speaker. Used to be semi-proficient in German, since I took about 4.5 years of it through high school and college, and it would probably come back to me fairly quickly if I were to immerse myself in it, but as it stands right now, my vocabulary is mostly limited to swear words, insults, or random nonsensical sentences (things like "you have a cat in your pants." Don't ask. There's no reasonable explanation for it. ).

 

I also know a smattering of Japanese, Spanish, and ASL, since I took a semester of each while in college, and I've picked up a bit of Korean, Swedish, and Finnish from friends who served missions there. Most of what I know in all 6 of these languages would do me absolutely no good when talking to a native speaker. Or visiting.

 

If I could become fluent in any languages I'd do German, Swedish, Gaelic, and Welsh, since on top of English, those are the predominant languages of my heritage. I also wouldn't mind learning Norwegian and Finnish. And Old English (since I know a bit of Middle English). Latin would be cool too. And Arabic.

[skaa]

I learned Filipino (my country's national language, also called Tagalog) and English pretty much simultaneously. As a kid, my dad would always talk to me and my siblings in English, while my mom used Filipino. I'm ashamed to say that now I'm only truly proficient in Taglish, or Filipino-English code-switching.

I've been studying Japanese on and off for the past two years but haven't had much progress beyond knowing the basic grammar rules, Hiragana and Katakana, and a few hundred Kanji and their various readings. I've kinda given up on it now.

I wish I knew how to read French and Latin, just because there are so many awesome books originally written in those languages.

Memorizing Hangul is a short-term goal of mine this year, though I don't really intend to learn Korean yet. It's more of just a personal challenge for me to learn the fascinating Korean alphabet.

If I could spend ten years doing nothing but learning languages, these would be on my priority list:

• Latin
• French
• Ancient Greek
• German

Edited February 19, 2015 by skaa

[Dunkum]

English speaker with some Spanish.  I took through AP spanish in High School, and could more or less make myself understood on the few occasionas I traveled to Latin American countries, but that AP credit meant I didn't take any in college and my practice of it lapsed, so whatever level of fluency I used to have is well diminished.  I'd like to pick it back up, and have managed to acquire Spanish copies of 100 Years of Solitude and Don Quixote that I intend to try to get through, but my brief attempt at the latter proved discouraging.

[Bronzeheart]

I grew up learning English, and have a basic understanding of Italian and Spanish. I'm working on my fluency in those two before starting with German. I'd also like to learn Portuguese and Russian at some point in time.

[Natans]

Me? I just speak Portuguese, a little bit of Spanish, and even less English, but man i like to fantasy so or I learnt English or I would stay grounded to read Harry Potter forever =)

There is no better teacher than necessity one could say =)

Edited January 17, 2015 by Natans

[Veczlen]

I'm a native English speaker.

 

I lived in South America for around two years, so I speak Spanish fluently.

 

I am currently in Poland and learning Polish and I must say that this language is easily the most difficult. I love the smashed consonants. For example, to say 'you scream,' you would write 'krzyczysz.'

[Honor's Radiance]

I'm a native English speaker, and the list of languages I know and want to know consists largely of dead languages, which makes it difficult to gain any true fluency.

 

My Latin is rusty because it's been several years, but I'll be picking it back up again for a class I'm currently taking. I've got a basic reading proficiency in Koine Greek and nearly that in Biblical Hebrew (can you tell what I study? ). I can stumble through Biblical Aramaic, and I've got an unreasonably small amount of Sanskrit for the year I spent learning it (don't do independent studies when you have eight other classes; heaven only knows what I was thinking when I made that schedule).

 

My to-learn list, approximately in order of priority is: (aside from finishing the ones currently in progress) Mongolian, ASL, Attic Greek, Arabic, Persian (I mean Middle Ages Persian, not Farsi), Syriac, Old English, Sindarin & Quenya, Syriac, Ugaritic, Russian, German, French...the list goes on.

[Eilemelie]

I'm a native Swedish speaker and I, as well as a proficiency test I took a year or so back, would like to consider myself fluent in English (it put me on the high level for a native speaker my age and way over the chart for someone who speaks it as a second language.) I've also studied a bit of Spanish - five years or so - where I am on a conversational level, if a bit rusty. In my early teens I was - for some reason - hanging around on a Danish forum, but I don't remember much of what I learned then. I do understand it, however, though for a Swede that's more a matter of dechiphering what sounds you are hearing rather than actually knowing Danish, and in College we have had lectures in both Danish and Norwegian (which is much easier to understand - you can hear what they are saying! Nynorsk is a bit of a pain in you-know-where though...) I also know a little bit of Italian due to an interest I used to harbour when younger (I bought a Swedish-to-Italian dictonary and phrasebook) as well as a few words and sentences of Japanese as well as kana, no kanji though... they're hard. This I learned from manga and "learn Japanese"-books I got from the library. Currently I'm trying to get a hang of German from my boyfriend's relatives whenever they are in the country. I would also like to know Icelandic/actual Olde Norse, because trying to translate runes is kinda hard without it, and Latin so I can read medieval manuscripts.

[oddchelonian]

Spanish is my native language. I am (clearly) fluent in English. I also "speak" to different levels of (lack of) fluency: Italian, French, Japanese, Mandarin, and Swedish.

 

I don't think I'm missing any, but I dabble a lot. Does FORTRAN count? Does anyone even still use that outside of the extremely niche field I used it in?

 

Lately I've taken up German, but I'm VERY early into that.

[the winter system]

I speak Englilsh and am learning Arabic... Well, learning would probably be an exaggeration. It is tough. 

[Fatebreaker]

My native language is Rhythm, and I'm fluent in both dialects, music and dance.

I'm also a fluent speaker of Mrm, the universal language of inarticulate grunts. I specialize in the Masculine dialect, though I can understand the Feminine dialect, just not as well. I can also speak Hgh?, the early morning dialect, and Shmshmg, the Eating dialect. 

[-Deleted-]

I posted a while back, and my answers have since grown, so here:

  -Born an English speaker

  -Can read German and partially speak it

  -Can partially read and understand Spanish

  -Can perform ASL

 

I practice ASL, German, and Spanish each at least three times a week

 

I hope to add Italian and French to my practices in a few years, and I really feel like I should figure out how to read music, but that one is honestly at the bottom of my list since it's not important for communication between people.

[Delightful]

I really feel like I should figure out how to read music, but that one is honestly at the bottom of my list since it's not important for communication between people.

That's linguistically true, but music can often communicate something that you just can't fit into words.

[Kestrel]

I want to learn all languages. I love it.

Of course, I'm failing Spanish, so I doubt I could actually become fluent in anything other than English.

[-Deleted-]

I want to learn all languages. I love it.

Of course, I'm failing Spanish, so I doubt I could actually become fluent in anything other than English.

 

Correction: you're failing the Scholastic delivery of Spanish teaching. Don't let that keep you down. Don't let school's grades decide for you what you do, or don't know; or even what you're capable of knowing. School is great for some subjects with certain people. the thing is, is that anyone is capable of learning anything. You've learned something: school is not the best medium for you in particular to learn Spanish, and likely other languages. Try different ways. Podcasts have become a relatively ignored, and yet amazing, tool in teaching and learning. Youtube his hundreds of channels on languages. Try reading books in other languages, and decipher them into English (treat it like a game,) then translate other things by hand into a different language.

 

You could directly incorporate the few words you do know into your own daily lexicon. For example, I have taken to signing the words or letters I know in ASL as I speak them. So maybe when you're writing notes for stuff, or writing schedules, you write them in whatever langue you're learning.

 

Or you could find a friend who speaks Spanish, and see if they'll help you.

 

Learning a language is a lifelong commitment, there are thousands of ways to do it. So keep trying

[Turos]

I know some Spanish, German and Japanese. I'm fluent in English. I've worked on some conlangs of my own creation.

 

I saw Rosetta Stone on sale a couple months back and bought the entire Japanese collection. It's actually really effective for me. I need to pick that back up. I imagine it would help if I actually had people to speak it with...

[Mistrunner]

I SPEEKS EENGLEESH.

 

I FEELS DUMM.